You know very well

I used to wear shoes. I had black lace-up shoes like this one that I wore on Sundays and had to polish every week. This was done outside, for fear of spreading shoe polish beyond the remit of the shoes. I did not like the job. On one occasion I remember my mother telling me I hadn't done a good job on the *** part of the shoe (I cannot remember - maybe heel, sole...). I asked - where is that? And my mother answered - "you know very well what I mean". But I didn't. No good arguing. So I remain in ignorance to this day as to what that part of a shoe was.  All this I explained in a previous post and no apologies for repeating myself.

Sometimes I hear parents in similar dialogues with their progeny and my heart misses a beat. But not just children - so often there is such an expectation that one should already know a thing that even eating humble pie and admitting one's ignorance does not evoke an explanation. Whilst playing soccer at grammar school I wished someone would tell me the rules - but boys are supposed to already know by that age. Or in the matter of sex - our biology master, when faced with the requirement to teach the subject, observed to the class that doubtless everyone knew all there was to know so there was surely no need to teach it and did anyone have a problem with that? Obviously no one owned up to his ignorance. Thankfully in this matter nature herself taught me and I have four wonderful children to prove the point.

My father taught me that it is always better to admit that one knows less than one thinks one knows: they might be some embarrassment in the admission but one ends up knowing more that way. I have tried to apply this principle but what does one do if, after such admission, they still won't tell you?

So much of a person's life is taken up with learning to live. What a joy it is to see a young teenager taking responsibility, learning a life-skill, taking an interest in things that matter.